From member of the Chicago underground comics scene to New Yorker cover artist and college professor, Ivan Brunetti has been challenging readers with his scathing satire and sharp intellect for decades. Now, he's brought his theories of comics structure to the mainstream with a series of how-to books, including Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice, Comics: Easy as A-B-C, and Aesthetics: A Memoir.
In addition to his groundbreaking Fantagraphics series Schizo, Brunetti has curated exhibitions of comics art, designed an album cover for Patton Oswald, and penned essays for The Paris Review, The Baffler, and McSweeney’s Magazine. In this conversation with S.W. Conser, he talks frankly about the deep depression that inspired his early comics, his struggles with the academic establishment, and the support he's received from his fellow artists.
- KBOO